I took this photo in February of the entrance trail to a slot canyon on the White Domes Loop Trail (while exploring Nevada’s Valley of Fire State Park — my second time there), during a brief trip to Las Vegas to meet up with our Florida traveling buddies, Louise & Lew (60mm, 1/320 sec, f/16, ISO 200).
Similar to 2022, we didn’t do that much traveling this year but I did still manage to take a bunch of photos, some of them discussed at some length in other posts in this blog and also uploaded to both my photography website and to my albums on Flickr.
Okay, before getting too far into this post, here’s my usual caveat about favorites: as the title of the post says, these images are my favorites of the year, not necessarily favorites of yours or anyone else (although, of course, I do hope you enjoy them). As usual, your mileage may vary.
Moreover, regular readers of this blog may remember that I published a post this year, entitled Oops! A leftover from 2022 in which I confessed to forgetting a very late holiday trip to SoCal during which we were treated to a visit of a holiday lights display at Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge — and during which I did take some photos of much of what we saw.
Strictly speaking, this first photo which is from that post, would have been a favorite for 2022 (if I had published those photos taken that year). But since I didn’t post about that trip until this year, I’ve included it as one of my 2023 favorites.
There were fields of these glass bulbs (that I called tulips) which faded through many color changes. If you review the “Oops…” post mentioned above, you’ll see that they fascinated me.
Las Vegas
We were in Las Vegas to visit with our friends, which we did mostly in the evening, over dinner — and to re-visit the Valley of Fire (VoF) State Park. I wrote about this trip in the Return to the Valley of Fire post in July. In addition to the image at the top of this post, two other photos also taken from the White Domes Loop Trail made my favorites list for this year. The first is actually from the actual slot canyon that the trail takes you through. Aside from being quite short (compared to some other slot canyons I’ve visited) this one had some weird, spooky shapes carved by forces of nature into the stone walls.
Coming out of the slot canyon, I was faced with an obvious trail that seemed to be heading in the wrong direction. I searched around to finally find the less obvious (but correct) trail heading up the rocks to the right.
Two other images from the VoF made my favorites list this year. First, this panoramic view of the White Domes Road, providing a sense of the span of the park (looking north, in this case) and the amazing colors this stony, high desert location provides.
The other is of this tree (or bush?), which may or may not be alive any longer, found along the Rainbow Vista Trail. [BTW, I never figured out where the name of this trail came from — it mostly follows the path of a canyon reducing “vista” possibilities.] But I did like this tree.
Maui
Napili Kai Beach Resort, located on Napili Bay, near Kapalua, at the north end of West Maui, is probably our favorite place to visit — which is why we try to go there every year. This visit was documented in Maui in May — Our Favorite Stay posted here last September. At the time of the year we usually visit (May) the sun sets behind the island of Molokai, just northwest of us. Unfortunately, because of clouds often cluster around that island, it tends to spoil many sunsets that would look great from a vantage point a few miles south of us. So, when I see a great sunset, I try to capture it.
At the other end of the day, I will often try to catch a sunrise. In this case, I walked to the other end of the bay to shoot back toward Napili Kai to capture this image of the sun just breaking over the top of two-story building on the beach and the deep shadows in the few early morning footprints in the sand.
Just before the shot below, I thought there would be no colorful sunset — when suddenly the higher altitude winds caused a break in the clouds to produce this spread of color in the sky and some reflections in the bay, as well. So I grabbed it.
Lake Tahoe
We spent some time with as many of our family that were able to join us at Lake Tahoe in August this year which I reported on in a post called Lake Tahoe Visit. As I reported in that post, I decided to take my sunrise photo over Emerald Bay from a slightly different position this time, a bit further east on the norther side of the bay. And the result was another favorite from a slightly different angle on the bay and the sunrise.
But the real surprise for me was when I turned around to see what other sort of composition I might make looking back at the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the California side of the lake and realized for the first time that I had greatly misunderstood the nature and size of the Lower Eagle Falls that I had been photographing for years. Of course, what I saw was even more enhanced by the tremendous amount of water that had fallen on the state in 2023 after several years of drought conditions.
Just to be clear, what I’d been photographing was just that little bit of the falls that shows in this composition as a tiny, white edge at the very top-right of this image; the part I’m talking about is probably about six or so feet wide and about three feet tall!
I was so taken with what I was “discovering” that I took another photo closing in on the major falls section that I never even suspected existed and promised myself that on our next trip up there (probably later in 2024) I would hike down to the bottom of the falls and try to find a composition from that perspective.
I had one more favorite from Lake Tahoe, and that was taken on the northern, east side of the lake from a spot near Memorial Point. It is another early morning image, taken during a time called the “blue hour” (just before sunrise).
San Francisco
As I wrote in a December post, A Short Stay in San Francisco, my wife and I spent a few days celebrating a major anniversary in the City, having dinner with friends, enjoying a upscale hotel, and just visiting. During our stay I took a few photos and picked one as a favorite to add to this collection.
Thank you for taking a look at my favorites of 2023. If you would like to see these images somewhat larger and with greater photographic detail and color fidelity, just click on this link to my photo website and the What’s New section or use this Flickr link to my 2023 Album. There you will find all of the above favorites along with others taken in the same locations at around the same time. If you agree with any of my choices or find something in my collection that you like better, you can always let me know by commenting in the Reply section below or by leaving a comment on the photo itself while viewing them in my photo website or Flickr site.
Ced's Blog 
Always awesome. Your photos both inspire and intimate me. As a friend of mine used to joke when he saw a photo I’d taken that he thought was nice, “Wow, you must have a really good camera!”
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